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How hot is it?

Posted on June 23rd, 2009 – 7:36 AM
By Robyn Dochterman

Hot enough for you? Chances are, you’ve talked about this sudden surge into summer swelter with friends or around the water cooler.

But have you conversed with your garden about this wet wool blanket of heat and humidity? My tomatoes and peppers are happy campers, but my peas are none too pleased. If you’ve got corn planted, listen carefully. Farmers say that in weather like this, they can hear it grow (yeah, okay, they are probably get a good chuckle at city folk trying to listen to their corn).

As for me, I’d wished I’d have hacked down a few more weeds before they reached “certified jungle” status. But I’m not going out there today to do it. I just hope when it does cool off, I can still find the stuff I planted.

What about you? You venturing out to tend the garden today? I don’t need to remind you to wear sunscreen, do I? Or to drink lots of water, right? Give your plants, especially those in pots, lots of water too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

14 Responses to "How hot is it?"

Geoff says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 9:20 am

Hot weather + sprinkler + swimsuit == good time to water your plants.

Get a Slip & Slide too if you want to divest all illusions of actually doing “work”.

Allison says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 am

Hot enough to remind everyone to water your new trees, bushes and keep your pet inside…out of the hot heat.

Enjoy it everyone!

Jenn says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 9:46 am

I’m wishing I had found the time to put in the bags of plants I got from generous gardeners this weekend. I was planning on putting them in today. What do you think, keep ‘em in the shade and water them often, (my vote) or put them in the ground in the sun?

toes says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 am

Just came in from watering the planters on the deck and picking the deadheads off. I also threw some water at the plants still in their nursery pots since I can’t imagine I’ll get to putting them in the ground for a few more days. Those I’ve got safely tucked in a shady spot so hopefully they won’t dry out too badly with this heat. Fortunately all the planted stuff got watered by the auto-sprinklers earlier this morning.

Heather says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 am

I did some nice work out there yesterday - staked my tomatoes, put in some stakes and string to help my cucs climb vertically this year. And I finally set up my ooze tube - anyone else used one of those before? I picked it up at Linders this year…giant plastic tube (holds enough water for 3-5 days) that you can use to do drip irrigation. I put drip lines out to my tomatoes and cucumbers. Need to find a couple more (it only came with 4). Oh, and today I picked another 4 quarts of strawberries from our garden!!

bsimon says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 am

“What do you think, keep ‘em in the shade and water them often, (my vote) or put them in the ground in the sun?”

I’d wear a big hat and put them in the ground.

Andie says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 am

Heather, I planted “bush cucumbers” this year, and have a tomato cage above them. Unfortunately, they seem to be spreading out rather than up. How does one use string to fix this problem? Is it really as simple as tying the vines to the cage? I love cucumbers, but I’m new at this gardening thing!

sparklegirl says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 11:33 am

All of the containers that usually live on my full(blinding!)-sun vernanda have been moved to the mostly-shade patio table. I’m hoping that will keep them from too much damage this afternoon.

Amelia Sprout says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 12:59 pm

I’m positive a radish put up a seed stalk between dinner and when I went out to water and check on everything last night.

Yesterday I staked tomatoes, gave some TLC to my peas and lettuce, and watered the heck out of eveyrthing (it is all raised beds this year). Tonight, I do the same while my daughter plays in her mini pool. When I am done, I’m sticking my feet in there with her. Oh, and I have a large floppy completely ugly hat I wear. It works.

laura says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 1:38 pm

my peas are most definitely not happy, and a few have started dying off on the bottoms already. phooey!

i had to shore up the dirt around one of my corn plants as its sudden new height/weight was tipping it over! this is my first time growing corn, but i’d say it is loving the heat as much as the tomatoes are.

my dogs are happy in their little plastic kiddie pools. i however am dealing with a struggling old central a/c unit.

mememom says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 1:39 pm

The cocoa bean mulch that I spread this morning is filling the air with chocolatey
scents–almost too much in this heat. Repotted some struggling annuals then spent a long time with the hose giving everyone a morning drink (including the panting black lab). I wonder what the lettuce will look like by Friday?

Robyn Dochterman says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm

My “cheat” for plants in small pots (which I still intend to put into the soil) is to put them in a flat, and water them until there’s sitting water. The roots soak up the moisture as they need it, and I don’t have to be quite so ashamed I haven’t gotten them a permanent home just yet.

The ooze tube sounds like a great idea. Please let us all know how satisfied you are with it. Maybe next year we’ll all have ooze tubes!

Erin says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 2:16 pm

I know it’s hot, but I’m worried about overwatering. Stuff was still damp under the mulch after yesterday’s heat, so I didn’t bother to check this morning. Is everything going to be dead when I get home?